The Reavers' Fury
by Wingflier
Summary: A story which is parallel to the events that occured in LoK: Defiance. An intense action(slash)sci-fi story involving Kain and Raziel which is bound to leave you on the edge of your seat. Please read and review.


"Give me your sword." Said raziel.

"What?"

"Give me the reaver."

"Have you lost your mind?"

"Kain! Must I remind you that even after you fabricated a vampire from my unwilling corpse and thoughtlessly cast me into the abyss I still retain some faith in you?

"Raziel. Don't be foolish. You never trusted me after I threw you into the abyss. You are merely too afraid to trust yourself."

"Oh I am so tired of hearing your ineffectual drivel. Believe me when I say that I would have little regret prying the reaver from your mutilated corpse."

"Raziel. We both know what will transpire upon you apprehending the reaver."

"And we also both know what will transpire if I do not apprehend the reaver."

"What are you suggesting?"

"I am suggesting that your dismantled corpse is about to be spattered all across this territory." Raziel said, pointing at the ground.

"Raziel you can't."

"I can Kain! And I will. Now provide me the Reaver!"

Kain hesitated for a moment and then reluctantly conveyed the sword unto Raziel.

An intense feeling of dread that he had always felt around the material reaver came back once again and consumed him. Everything within him told him not to take the reaver from Kain. He didn't want to. Everything inside of him was against it. Beside himself, he reached out and snatched the reaver from Kain's grasp.

Immediately the material reaver and the spectral reaver were impelled to each other. It labored Raziel greatly to keep them apart. Raziel knew the fate that awaited him if the two reavers were to combine.

With all his strength, Raziel violently thrust the material reaver towards Kain, stopping his hand only when the point of the blade was dangerously close to Kain's throat.

Shocked, Kain stumbled back.

"I might need your help - you had better not betray me Kain, for your sake. argh"

Raziel grunted in agony. The two reavers continued their attempt to pull together, Raziel had to strain every muscle in his body to keep them apart.

Kain laughed,

laughs "You just can't stand asking me for help can you? What an irony - isn't it? The person that you are so destined to destroy, the very vampire who has made you into the abomination that you are - is now the only support that you have."

"I am not asking you for help. argh.. I'm telling you to help."

And with that he jumped over the edge and into the fray.

Every second Raziel had spent upon the ledge above the battle, the sanguineous combat had intensified.

By the time Raziel entered the pandemonium it had grown to a cataclysmic intensity.

The three factions were distinct. The vampires, the humans, and the evil beasts. "The evil beasts," thought Raziel. "I wish I knew what they really were and where they come from." Thinking about the beasts took Raziel to a time far in his past. On his journey to find Yannos Aldron he had been attacked by such monstrosities, and, if he remembered correctly, had barely made it out of the terrible engagements alive. After being cast into the abyss, his memory had never been perfect. But he distinctly remembered these freaks and many things about them. It wasn't enough that the fiends were huge and fast, there were several different types, and they were all extremely deadly. He had been told in the past that the beasts were sent as assassins by a dark force, bent on the destruction of Kain and Raziel and the restoration of the Pillar of Balance. Raziel was not quite sure what their purpose was in the temple, but if they were there, then there was something there important to them.

Raziel walked towards the center of the bloodbath, to the center of chamber, where a huge Spectral eye reposed, observing all of them in an intoxicating delirium of ecstasy.

The battle was so intense that nobody involved even noticed Raziel, the prophesized savior of Nosgoth, walking towards the center of what had became the vehement arena. Only after a small group of humans mistakenly conceived him as a vampire and assaulted him, only for their souls to be swiftly taken did the massive swarm of warriors start to realize his existence in the place. Slowly, everybody fighting near him stopped and stared. A wave of astonishment crashed over the whole assembly until every single breathing body in the room had stopped fighting to try and understand what was taking place.

As Raziel walked towards the center of the room, the crowds parted like the Red Sea in his presence. Leaving him an appopriate path to the Spectral eye.

All the heads that could see him followed him and he stopped on the pupil of the confounding engravement of the Spectral eye. As the multitude backed away from him, a near perfect circle of space was created around him.

The mob stood completely silent, as if waiting for him to speak.

"Wow." Thought Raziel. "Even with the state of intense agony that I am obviously experiencing, they refuse to attack me. Are they that terrified of me? Or are they just that thunderstruck that I have appeared before them." He concluded that it was probably a mix of both. He was sure that the prophecies they had heard about him surely depicted him as a distinguished and unyielding warrior.

"I'm glad that I have such a bewildering reputation on my side." Thought Raziel. "But even with it, I do not know if I can accomplish what I know I must."

He cleared his throat.

He struggled to speak while still striving to keep the two reavers apart.

"Humans, Vampires, and beasts of all kinds, hear me! I have come to take all of your souls." Still, there was complete silence. "If you do not contest me, I shall make your death quick and painless, I can not promise the same for the imbeciles who choose to stand their ground and oppose me."

Still again, silence. He knew they knew, he was completely serious.

After a few moments of hesitation a few vampires walked up to him and bent before him, gesturing that they were ready to die.

After running them through with the material reaver, he looked up and asked if anybody else wanted to go painlessly.

He could feel the supercharged material reaver, its insatiable appetite starving for more blood.

He could hardly control the spectral reaver now. It was if it had become jealous, as if it had a mind of its own. It struggled in his hand. It yearned for its life-blood, it yearned for souls. It was jealous of the material reaver for getting to feed. This was what Raziel had counted on. The two reavers were now preparing to embark in a gory competition for life. Each blade had its own unique way to gain energy and each blade thirsted to be more powerful than the other.

As drastically as the two reavers had turned towards each other, struggling to combine, they were now repelled from each other, struggling to destroy and seeking life-blood at all costs to make each of them stronger.

Raziel felt as if he was being ripped apart.

With all of his remaining strength, Raziel pulled the reavers down to his sides, trying to convey to the crowd that he was moderate and in control. In reality, nothing could have been farther from the truth.

He couldn't believe how much effort it took just to speak.

"This is your last chance." He said. "Go painlessly or cruelly. It does not matter to me."

He hesitated for a few more seconds and when he could no longer control the fantastic urges of the reavers he spoke:

"Time's up. Who's first."

Still. Nobody moved.

"It's too late for civility." Thought Raziel. "If they wanted that they could have chosen it."

And after that thought, he let the Reavers loose.

Both of the reavers seemed to have chosen the same target.

A huge fiery monster almost directly in front of Raziel.

As Raziel was pulled through the air, bereft of all his willpower, he decided that this monster was probably the first choice because it contained a LOT of life blood which both of the swords desired.

Even though the whole event had happened tremendously rapidly, the monster had just enough time to pull his arms up for protection.

To all of the onlookers, Raziels attack must have looked ruthless yet flawless. The spectral reaver struck first, beginning at the belly of the huge beast and swifty working up, through the arms which where crossed over the beast's chest. The pain caused by this ludicrous action caused the beast to unfold his massive arms, exposing the chest area which the material reaver immediately plunged in to. The monster fell over backwards, instantly extinct. Both swords battled for the life-blood of the corpse. The material reaver, which was already inside of the beast started absorbing the blood. The spectral reaver struck the material reaver out of the chest and began its own devouring act only to be hammered out again by the material reaver. In the end, neither reaver got much energy from the beast.

After a kill the corpse of the victim had to be quickly consumed or else it would become unusable. The quarreling between the swords had squandered a lot of time, leaving them both somewhat unfilled.

They turned on their next victim.

Raziel was very surprised to see that nobody had even moved since his first attack. "How could they be this awestruck," he thought. "These are seasoned warriors, what is so astonishing about what I'm doing?"

Raziel did not realize how graceful and impeccable his motions had been.

The multitude was astounded by the magnificience of his skill.

Little did they know that he was hardly controlling his movements at all.

Raziel flung towards the reavers' next target, an unsuspecting barbarian, who, unlike the beast that had just been destroyed, did not even have time to react before both of the reavers plunged into him, and then quarreled over who would get the spoils.

Finally, the multitude began to show signs of movement.

The vampires, soldiers, and monsters picked their jaws up off of the ground and prepared for the battle that many believed could be their last.

Time froze as Raziel's arms were once again gripped and controlled by the two swords.

In his bizarre state he noticed two vampires, on opposite ends of the middle circle, leap, in slow motion, towards him. In both directions, the reavers pointed outwards, twisting his entire body to a 90 angle in order to encounter the vampires with the point of both swords. It worked perfectly. At almost the exact instant, both of the vampires were impaled on the blades, their life blood swiftly taken.

After that happened, what had been a trivial skirmish became a colossal contention.

Seemingly all at once the entire legion ran towards him.

The sole thing it could be described as: It was like a massive swarm of red ants swarming towards a drop of honey in the center of a huge arena.

As the huge tsunami first met Raziel the swords completely lifted him off of the ground and did something that was more or less a helicopter gyrate decapitating at least 5 warriors. As the swords, spears, claws, and similar fighting utensils of all types rushed towards Raziel's upper body, the swords pulled him down and caused him to start slicing the lower parts of his enemies.

The enemy had a very tough time recognizing where he was or even what was going on in the midst of the chaos.

Suddenly, the blades starting whirling around above him, causing him to do a form of lethal break dance which made targeting him very complicated.

As the world swirled around him, Raziel could hardly breath.

He was not sure if this was because the swords were twisting his body in so many deranged directions or because of the fact that there was so much blood in the air.

Raziel could feel the swords' vigor growing. With each kill, he could feel the energy of the reavers flowing through him. The competition between the two blades was only becoming more and more intense and Raziel figured that the final resolution would either kill him, or make him extremely powerful.

Raziel hoped with all his desires that this incident would not be the end of him. "I have to figure out why I am here. I have to know more. I have to know my true destiny."

The battle raged on.

A minute break in the action caused the swords to bring him to his feet and provided him enough time to quickly survey his surroundings. There were bodies and blood everywhere. Raziel could not fathom the fact that he had killed all of those people without even so much as a scratch.

Suddenly he was lurched foward. The reavers sought to create a path out of the center of the arena, straight through the multitude of enemies, to the edge of the room. He was not sure why, but it's not like it mattered what he knew, he was going where they wanted.

As he glided towards the edge of the ring, cleaving everything that came into his path, the swords caused him to perform numerous acts of crackbrained stunts that allowed him to spin, flip, backflip, gyrate, ariel, and generally soar through the air dicing up everything in the path.

He could be compared to a sanguineous angel of death flowing towards the Northern edge of the arena, annihilating all opposition in its passage.

As he finally reached the edge of the arena he was severely hyperventalating. He honestly felt as if he was going to fall over and die at any second. He could hardly control his thoughts. A sense of vertigo consumed him, reality and imagination collided, leaving the truth of the situation in shambles.

Suddenly, he blacked out.

He awoke in a very odd place. Everything around him was a bluish colored blur. Streams and stripes of blue surrounded him as if he was somehow trapped in a dark room full of the Northern Lights. The ground below him, which was only dimly lit by the blue oddities, felt like a mix between plastic, clay, and concrete to him. It was very smooth, yet tough and extremely bumpy with many edges. As he stood up and surveyed his surroundings he profoundly wondered where it was that he was. And before he had much time to think about it a strange white figure started coming towards him. As it floated to him he felt warm. It approached him and then swirled around him, as if examining his structural integrity.

"Who are you?" Asked Raziel.

"Not who, but what." said the phenomenon.

"What?"

"I am but a figment of your imagination."

"Where am I?"

"You are inside of your mind."

"I need to go. I can not stay here."

"Patience is a virtue Raziel. Do not be too hasty. Believe me, you will return to that grotesque place in due time."

"In due time for my funeral I'm assuming."

"Shhhh. Don't talk, just listen."

"No you listen. I have to find some answers. I don't have time for this. Now how do I get out of here."

"Raziel! Please stop and heed my words. I have some very useful information that I'm sure you would have no problem in acquiring."

Raziel hesitated, as if ready to object to accepting some more, but decided it was futile.

"Okay spirit, let's hear this information."

"The reavers have been controlling you throughout this battle. While this has made you an exceptional fighter, your body can not operate under the intense amount of stress that the reavers have put on you."

"I have no choice. I have no control over them now."

"You can."

"What?"

"Did I stutter."

"No, that is the perplexing part."

The phenom said nothing.

"Well are you going to tell me how?"

"I don't think you deserve to know."

"Oh I don't have time for this! Send me back!"

"I can keep you here as long as you want. Maybe you should be a little more polite."

"Maybe you should kiss my ass."

"Raziel. How apalling. You don't even know me. How can you treat me this way."

"Just let me go and I won't have to treat you at all."

"No...And if you keep this attitude up I'll keep you forever."

"You do not scare me. You do know that I can devour spirits right?"

"I am no spirit."

"Should we find out?"

"Go ahead and waste more of your time."

Raziel pulled his protective cloak from his mouth attempting to pull the spirit into himself.

"Hmm. You tell the truth."

"Why would I lie to you."

"Who cares. Can I leave?"

"No."

"What do I have to do before you let me leave?"

"You have to make me want to let you leave."

"Oh you are such a bitch. You were a woman in a previous life weren't you?"

"I never had a previous life."

"How interesting. Can we cut to the chase?"

"There is no chase."

"You better make a chase."

"You are in no position to threaten me Raziel."

"Fine. You want me to be nice to you?"

"That would be a start."

"Arrgh"

"I'm waiting."

"Can you _please_ tell me how to leave here?"

"No...First I want to tell you how to control the reavers."

"Ok then..."

(inhales) "Can you please explain to me how to control the reavers?"

"Yes...but first you have to perform three tests."

"Arrgh... You can't be serious."

laughs "No I wasn't, but you should have seen the expression on your face."

Raziel said nothing.

"The reavers can sense your fear and feelings of helplessness. If you ever want to have control of the swords then you must let go of these falsities."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if you truly believe you can have control over them, then maybe you will."

"Maybe?"

"Well. Nothing is certain. Even changing your mind to an uplifted state will not give you authority of the dual reavers for long, if at all at this point."

"What do you mean at this point?"

"I mean your body and mind are exhausted Raziel. You have put them through a chaotic pandemonium and, at this point, it could be too late too control both reavers at once."

"So what you're saying is that it is potentially possible for me to have control over the dual reavers for a minute period of time."

"It is quite possible."

"How do you know this?"

"Because I am in your in your mind and in your consciousness...I am you."

"Great."

"Don't I remind you of yourself?"

"Can we go on?"

"Go on with what. I've told you all you need to know."

"Perhaps you have. Maybe all I need is a few seconds of control."

Raziel thought for a few moments and then continued, "As much as I hate to say it...Thank you."

"You're welcome. It was nice meeting you Raziel. I will be with you always."

Raziel felt himself fading, the sense of vertigo he had felt before he passed out returned as he lost all sense of where he was or what was occuring.

"Good bye Raziel." He heard faintly.

And then he was back.

His face was on the stony ground, he was lying on his chest. He looked up to see the crowd coming towards him, weapons raised. He decided that he must have been out for a max for 5 seconds. To the right was the material reaver, and the spectral reaver had receded back into himself.

A huge barbarian human, the closest to him by far, leaped through the air and was preparing to land, axe in hand, directly on top of Raziel.

Raziel monkey rolled to the right and grabbed the material reaver shotgunning it to his left to meet the axe very near the ground.

The axe shattered, sending pieces of metal in all directions. Luckily for Raziel most of the pieces missed him.

Raziel looked to his left to see the barbarian, or what was left of him, segmented into two pieces on the floor.

"I guess that takes care of that." He thought.

As he struggled to his feet he felt the two reavers, still supercharged, started to take control of him.

As the reavers began to eliminate all sources of his will he almost decided to let them derive control, but after hearing what the woman, or whatever it was, in his dream had told him, he pulled himself together and began the difficult process of convincing himself that he actually did have command over the two reavers.

He strove with all his self control to convince himself that he indeed had the power within him to control the two reavers. It was of no use. The more effort he exerted, the more the blades took control of him. He attempted again, using everything within him, he strove with all his might to convince himself that the reavers were under his control. And once again, he failed, only to be consumed even moreso by the terrible fury of the reavers. Raziel knew he could not hold out much longer. Every muscle in his body strained and an intense wave of agony continued to wash over him. He longed to just 'let go' and allow the reavers to once again take control.

In his final attempt to control the reavers Raziel let out a terrible shriek of agony and attempt to overtake the reavers and even for a few brief seconds, have control over their terrible fury.

He continued to scream. He could feel himself failing once again. He could feel the terrible wrath of the reavers start to overtake him in what he knew could only be his last attempt.

As all of his energy was about to be exhausted, he drew in a huge breath of air and with everything left within him let out a piercing, "No!"

Then, it happened.

Everything stopped.

A sense of vertigo ensued.

Raziel, unknowlingly, had actually succeded in reaching the next level of his species or being.

He stumbled forward with both swords in hand.

Everything about him was suddenly enhanced.

All of his senses were heightened, his muscles bulged, his brain effenciency was perfected, where as before he only used about 1/4 of all the grey matter within his brain, he now used somewhere around 65 percent. He interpreted everything around him twice as fast, making the world seem twice as slow. He was in essence Super Raziel, an improved form of himself, enhanced in every way shape and form and reaching a new level of his existence. But, like all good things, he knew this state could not last forever.

In truth Raziel only had a few seconds in this form, because in this form his life force was being dramatically depleted, and he had started out with a lack of it.

The new existence that he was temporarily experiencing threw him into a destructive frenzy, which expeditiously granted him a dazzling judgement on how to bide his brief time of domination.

Even five seconds after he had metamorphisized he could feel himself slipping, falling back into his normal, standard, and common state.

As the tidal wave of monsters, vampires, and all other enemies slowly, at least to him, rushed towards Raziel, he slammed the point of the material reaver into the ground creating a massive shockwave which condemned all surrounding bystanders to the ground.

So awestruck was the multitude by the unexpected show of quick-witted action that they had no inclination of the ensuing peril to come.

Raziel's next feat would be one that would be inscribed in the books of ancient history for all eternity and looked upon with as sense of awe by anybody lucky, or unlucky enough to hear about it.

Aware that his moment of supernatural glory was coming to an end, he exerted all his remaining energy into his last outrageous exploit.

As the gathering began to take back to their feet Raziel made his last quick-witted decision.

The material reaver, which had been thrust into the ground, was now very deep-rooted under the concrete base of the giant stadium.

Raziel, even with all of his uncanny strength could do little to pry it from its new found home. He knew he had to make a decision very quickly or risk being destroyed by the massive swarm that was now rushing towards him.

So in a flash of brilliance he focused all of himself onto his leg muscles and did a ridiculous backflip in an attempt to bring the sword from the ground.

Raziel was interpreting things so fast that he even had to time to contemplate the success of his act.

He silently cursed to himself as the vertical impact of his first foot on the handguard of the material reaver did little more than move it a few inches.

He hoped with all of his hope that his second foot would have more success.

It did.

When his second foot hit the opposite site handguard the sword was promptly propelled from the ground, and whirling, it soared straight up into the air.

Raziel performed a cat-like spin feat to reach the ground at almost a 180 dissimilarity to how he had left it.

Much to his dismay the monsters were now to his back, but, he recognized that he had to be facing the wall in order for this trick to work.

With radical force and an immense amount of energy he dashed towards the wall at supersonic speed, and upon reaching it, scaled up it, using his legs as his vehicle.

The sword was now, by the power of gravity, falling back down towards the ground.

Using a timing which could be described as nothing other than perfect, using all of his leg muscles, he rapidly propelled himself from the wall.

This caused his whole body to shift from left to right and when the timing was perfect, his wall mounted roundhouse kick connected with the sword.

To say even the least, Raziel had caused the weapon to rocket, at an idiotically high speed, towards the hoarde.

Spinning at mach speeds now, the sword, needless to say, lacerated everything in its path without so much as a slight abrasion.

It was a sight to behold. The flight of the reaver, which would later become legendary, was a sight, that for many, would become their last.

As the reaver twirled through the crowd, dismembering or decapitating anybody it its path, it was also, at the equivalent time absorbing vigor and becoming more lethal with each strike.

As it finally arrived at the end of the multitude, and smashed into the opposite end wall, the flight did not cease.

Instead the weapon produced a gigantic hole in the wall and kept spinning until it was well outside the castle walls.

We will discover the noteworthy fate of the reaver later on in the story.

For now the focus stays on Raziel.

During the legendary flight of the reaver, Raziel's depleted energy caused him to morph back into his common form.

He was as fatigued as ever. He felt as though he had been through a monumental battle, after which he hadn't slept for 200 years. He was dead tired, and he longed to rest.

If not for the astonishing sight he saw next, all hope might have been lost for him.

But that's what the sight did; give him hope, and the hope gave him just enough energy, motivated him, just enough, that he decided he would make one last attempt to continue.

The horrific site was indeed the gory and blood-spattered battlefield over which he was standing.

It gave him a sense of confidence to know that he had somehow survived through all this chaos with minimal damage to his exterior self.

That was not the most beneficial display, however.

The spectacle that really made his hope of being triumphant soar were the expressions on the hundreds of survivors faces.

Humans, vampires, and even beasts alike, were all frightfully astonished that so many of their comrades, now, of the same race or not, all banding together against the common enemy, had been so rapidly dispatched.

From the start of the evolution of Raziel to his recession back to normal, he had caused such havoc as too completely obliterate and steal the life force from hundreds of allies. Ensuring that there was no possibility of resurrecting their mutilated corpses.

The expression on each and every one of Raziel's enemies' face depicted sheer terror and absolute dread of the inevitable and subsequent battle.

The humans main cause for being in the castle in the first place was that they felt a sense of responsibility and fear towards these other races which threatened them. The vampires were here because they were bound by honor to protect this castle. And the beasts were here out of sheer bloodlust and were also most likely on some sort of mission.

Maybe these purposes are in some way a consolation towards what happened next.

Many of the humans, fearing the next phase of attack from Raziel, turned tail and escaped through the hole that the material reaver had created.

The chaos of losing number caused a panic within the human race and initiated a mass exodus of the humans.

In the end, only a few of the more honor bound people stayed.

Raziel was very happy to see this outcome. However, he knew that while the humans had the potential of being very powerful, they were not his greatest concern.

Even knowing this, the dreadful appearance still on all of the mob's faces gave him an indisputable reservoir and exterior aura of hope that could not be denied.

Raziel just wished that hope could be enough.


End file.
